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LWN: Journaling ReiserFilesystem for SuSE Linux

"The "second extended filesystem" (ext2) has been established in
Linux for many years now as the standard file system. It is robust,
well-tested and mature. However, if the computer is not shut down
properly and the file system not cleanly closed down, then the next
time the computer starts it must check the consistency of data
structures in the file system, to prevent possible data
loss...."

"The technical solution to this problem is the "Journaling
Filesystem". Here, with the help of a journal, every change to the
data structures of the file system is carefully protocolled, and
this very journal is written to the hard drive _BEFORE_ any
possible modifications to the actual data are made...."

"In close cooperation with SuSE, the developers' group under
Hans Reiser and Chris Mason have expanded the high-performance
ReiserFS with a corresponding Journaling functionality. The
result for SuSE Linux 6.3 is now ready to be downloaded...."